Why my choice in Music isn’t worse than yours

Music is one of the most controversial topics in the world today. The definition of ‘quality music’ is very vague and most people fail to appreciate the hard work gone into making a song. People complain about how the music industry has died and all the music being released today is rubbish, while there are others who love the music being released today and instead go about running down the old songs. This argument has been going on for many years, and I am here to provide my views on either side.

Lets start with the music made in the 70’s onwards. This class of music included mostly rock, provided by bands such as Pink Floyd, The Beatles, The Doors and so on. This was a time when Rock and Roll took the world by storm, and to make music, one actually needed to learn how to play that instrument. These songs were properly cherished and enjoyed, and were made when a musician could be confident that he could make money off of his songs, due to the limited piracy scams.

There are people in the world who only like these kind of songs and have grown so used to them, that when they hear other genres, they immediately turn them down. I have no problem with these kinds of people, as it is their own opinion. However, there are people who take it to another extreme by stating that music being made today requires no talent. That is an outrageous statement to make, as while it may not require a person to actually learn the instrument, it still is required that the person have a basic knowledge of all the scales, time signatures, clefs and so on. Most people in the world are only aware of the 7 major scales C, D, E, F, G, A, and B. At the most, people may know about sharps and flats.

However, there are an infinite number of different scales for each note ranging from the ‘natural minor’ to the ‘diminished’ and the ‘harmonic seventh’. These people have taken the effort of learning all these scales, and while they may not be able to play a proper instrument, technology has allowed them to replicate their sounds on a digital interface. So, to all those people out there who feel that modern music can be made by anyone- let me see you create a song at the same level as today’s artists.

Now I will agree with people when they say that some singers have no talent. Music today has become very money-minded and people make a song, not for the love of music, but for the love of money. As a result, most songs are uninspiring and don’t even sound good. There are people who use auto tune because they themselves can’t hold a note, and I feel that is wrong. These people are making millions having no talent, while people who can actually sing are left out. However, while I don’t approve of them cheating to make music, it is still music at the end of the day, and if it sounds good, its fine by me.

Then there are people like Lil’Wayne who call themselves ‘rappers’, but actually talk into a mic as if giving a speech, with a backing track playing in the background. In my opinion, this does not count as music. Rappers like Eminem and have proper talent – try rapping out ‘Rap God’ and you’ll see what I mean. They are the definition of ‘rap’. However, the music being made today which is considered ‘rap’, is basically people with big names talking into a mic.

People claim that digital instruments are ruining the music being produced today. I would disagree with all those people. I feel that digital instruments are opening a new chapter in the music industry, by producing sounds which would never come out of an ordinary instrument. There are people who can skilfully utilise these sounds in their songs to make them sound good, for example DubStep- the genre. Not a single proper instrument is used in the making of a DubStep song. All the crazy electronic sounds found on a synthesiser ranging from hysterical laughs to police sirens, all come together to form one song. It still sounds good, and it sounds ‘different’. It takes a certain skill to notice what sounds good with what and if people are not appreciative of the genre, I don’t think they should go about calling it rubbish.

There are people who compare DubStep and modern electronic music to the music made 20 years ago. I would like to point out, that the electronic sounds heard in modern day DubStep, are very similar to the sounds used by Psychedelic Rock Bands. Pink Floyd, for example, also use electronic sounds throughout their album Dark Side of the Moon. Let me just remind you- That album to this very date, remains the best selling album of all time.

Now lets move to the other end of the spectrum- the music made in the 21st century. This music included a wider range of genres, and numerous sub-genres. For example, Rock may have have only one genre when it was first brought into the mainstream, but over time it expanded into Alternative Rock, Hard Rock, Jazz Rock, Funk Rock and so on. This made it confusing enough, but then digitalisation of music came into play, and anyone with basic knowledge of the scales could make a song. Granted, it would take more than ‘basic’ knowledge to make a good song, but now songs could be made at the tap of a button. This digitalisation meant that people who actually went through the trouble of learning an instrument had immense competition with people who had no musical experience. This lead to a lot of bitterness and hatred, but songs kept on being released.

People born in the 21st century have grown up listening to this kind of music and the ‘rock’ genre has almost died. There are people who comment on these songs by calling them old and dreary, but let me remind you- these songs formed the base for what is ‘modern’day music. For example- Jazz music has been around for decades. This jazz slowly evolved into RnB, which soon became Reggae, which spread into a sub-genre of ‘Dub’, which finally became what is today considered DubStep. So before people go around calling old music ‘dreary’, remember- the music you like, spawned from it.

In conclusion, ‘quality music’ is an opinion. One should not be judged by the music they listen to, and likewise, should not judge others by their music choice.

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